Now the .tel domain names are on general sale, it’s a really good time to build your business set up with this new way to communicate via the world wide web…

Building a .tel is a quick, easy and effective way of communicating your contact details. Think of it as a your own directory listing which can list everything about your company. It’s great on mobile phones too. Due to it’s revolutionary use of the DNS, the pages load very fast and when you find the number you’re after, you simply click it in your browser and your mobile automatically dials! Couldn’t be easier or more convenient.

At miggle.co.uk we’ve already started building some .tel websites and have been very impressed with what we’ve seen of their functionality so far.

Here is the view of www.webdevelopment.tel as seen from a PC or laptop (mobile view is a simplifed version). When building a .tel you can list any kind of contact information:

• Voice Calls
• Mobile Calls
• Email
• voIP
• Fax
• Web links
• Google maps
• Keywords
• Postal address

Having a .tel built for your business is a great way to improve your online presence whether you already have a website or need to get an online presence quickly and cheaply.

Here at miggle.co.uk we are already experienced in building .tel websites so if your thinking of improving your companies online presence then check out our website.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

New things happen on the Internet all the time. It’s an evolving medium – that’s one of the best things about it. This latest development has really got us excited though: the launch of .tel domains.

What’s it all about?

.tel is a new top level domain (TLD) like a .com or a .co.uk, yet different in one key respect: the way it uses the Internet’s ‘phone book’, DNS (Domain Name System).

Up until now, everytime you access a website, the address you type in is translated, by DNS, into the set of numbers that the website lives under. Your computer (or mobile phone) then busies itself with retrieving the webpages. With .tels, it’s all completely different as all the information in a .tel is stored by the DNS. This means that the DNS doesn’t need to look anywhere else for the info, so it can deliver the information that lives under yourbusiness.tel super quickly.

A .tel domain can either complement your existing website or act as a stand-alone website if you don’t yet have one. All the information that lives at yourbusiness.tel is viewable in a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or FireFox) as a webpage.

Because of their speed, .tel domains have significant advantages for web-enabled mobile phones – many of which still download standard web pages quite slowly. Also, because you can publish pretty much any contact information on a .tel, customers are just one click from your website, your email or from making a call.

With a .tel domain you can:

Join a global online directory that provides you instant worldwide exposure…

Integrate all your means of communication in a single place under your control…

Update and manage your contact information and keywords in real time…

Increase your search engine visibility through descriptive keywords…

Provide a fast way for your customers to connect with you in a single click from any mobile device…

How are .tel domains different to .coms?

The makers of .tel reckon that .tel domains could be as big as .com. We’re not going to be as bullish as .tel’s inventors because the invention of .com was a once in a lifetime phenomenon. But .tel will be big and we think businesses should get on board – not just to have a cool domain name, because this is NOT what .tel is about – but to get to use part of the internet, DNS, the web’s engine room, that other domains can’t exploit.

Without getting too technical, .tel domains use of DNS allows them to deliver several advantages. The .tels work really quickly on mobile phones – putting users one click away from making calls, sending you a mail or browsing your website. And because changes you make to your .tel are instantaneous (or as near as), anyone or anything that references your .tel has access to the latest, most up-to-date info about your business.

Exciting new opportunities with .tel domains

There are a number of other exciting aspects to .tel domains – opportunities for social networking and location based services being amongst our most hotly anticipated. Also, .tel development will not stand still. Think of some of the first .com pages you ever looked at, back when your mobile phone was brick sized and no one had thought of putting a browser on it – how far they’ve come. .tel has also been developed with a view to evolve. Watch this space for more .tel news very soon.

At miggle, we’ll be building a few .tels of our own. We can build your .tel pages too. For more information on .tels, contact the miggleweb team.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

An active community of users can be great for increasing engagement on your site and for your business as a whole. However, it’s no longer a case on the Internet of ‘build it and they will come’. The community elements of your site need a hook and they’ll need a certain level of effort to start them off and to keep them running.

Users will ‘pay’ to join your community using personal data as the currency. You need to give them something back of value that they can’t get elsewhere. Unmet needs on the web are hard to find these days!

Another point to consider: though you’re building community elements to benefit your business, the dialogue and the interaction is owned by the members. They may not behave as you hoped and they may take the conversation where you never dreamed they would. This can be as much opportunity as threat if you manage it correctly.

If you are going to build a community, what’s your hook?

The best community sites have hooks. Flickr has pictures, YouTube has video, LastFM has music, Yahoo! Answers has questions. Facebook, Bebo and Twitter are built around people – the various tools they supply being able to allow people to share interests. Blogs are built around certain subject matter, forums help people resolve problems.

Between them, all the sites above have millions of users. Those users have to manage many different profiles, as well as the usernames and passwords they use to manage email, online banking, telephony services, etc. If you build another network you are throwing something else into the mix – something else to remember and you’ll be competing for online time against bigger players. That doesn’t mean that you should not try and build the community tools your site needs – but if you think you’ll struggle to make those stand out in a crowd, think about how maybe you could become active within existing communities. Your existing and future customers are already active there after all – and there are great opportunities to use these sites as a pool from which you can fish users.

Which existing community sites could you focus on? Where are the most appealing audiences?

Think about your own use of social networks and communities. Of the sites you use, how are they making money – and how have they made money out of you? Do these communities offer direct revenue generating opportunities, or are the way they contribute to profits more subtle than that?

How will building a community add to your bottom line?

Let’s imaging for a moment that you could invite all the users of Bebo – a site popular with kids – or Facebook to your house or office. Think of what provisions you’d have to make. It’s the same online. Your community needs to be managed, maintained, listened to and catered for. If they don’t – back to the offline analogy – they will trash your house and leave and it’ll look in a pretty poor state for the next set of visitors.

How will you keep the community alive, engaged, entertained and legal?

If you read your news from bbc.co.uk, chances are you’ll go back everyday if you like the coverage. If you meet your life partner on match.com, you’ll never use the site again. Both sites have delivered, but only one retains its customers. The one that can’t needs to be able to continually drive awareness of itself, while always appearing fresh.

What will be our response when our community members don’t play ball and do the things on our site the marketing team promised they would?

The migglemedia team can help you address all the factors you need to take into account before venturing into the world of online communities and social media websites.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

Received 9th March 2009:

“Hi Alick, Just had a look at the Cooden Beach website out of interest. I was very impressed with it. I like the way the pictures change on each page. Just thought I would let you know that I thought it was excellent. Love Mum”

Bless.

Fortunately, the miggle team don’t have to rely solely on Alick’s mum for positive feedback. See actual testimonials from our clients on our website design and development, content management and online media services on the main miggle website.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

The first of our miggle website fundamentals is: “The key to online success lies in understanding the audience for your business”. If you can crack this, then you’re onto a website winner.

Contrary to popular opinion, the streets of the superhighway are not paved with gold. Long gone are the days of glaring gaps in the market and websites that simply ‘manage themselves’. We’d place money on the Pareto principle striking here: with just a few well-managed e-commerce websites hoovering up 80% or more of online business, with most websites left out in the cold.

So why is this? Many site owners make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse online business-wise: coming up with an idea for an online business and immediately commissioning web design and development, without considering whether there will be a profitable audience for their business.

Avoid being an Internet also-ran

If your online business is going to actively compete in the race for ‘Net establishment, then you first have to know WHO you are trying to communicate with, e.g. persuade to buy your products or subscribe to your services, before you can work out HOW best to communicate with them through your website.

Internet megastars like Amazon and eBay have cornered their particular markets by being savvy about what their online users want. How did they find out what their potential users wanted? They asked them.

While smaller site owners may not have millions to invest in audience analysis; small scale market research and usability tests can reveal a lot of tendencies, common assumptions and even eccentricities within your target audiences and allow you to change and develop your site accordingly.

You may be wondering how this affects the bottom line. Well, in a recent study, online test shoppers were only able to complete half of the shopping tasks given them, due to confusing or inefficient websites. If you’re losing 50% of your potential sales, that’s a lot of revenue down the pan and, also, a lot of aggrieved customers who won’t be returning to your site.

How migglemedia can help your online business succeed

At migglemedia, we pride ourselves on our understanding of online audiences and spend the extra time getting to know all our clients’ networks and audiences, so we’re well placed to offer strategic insights. We can analyse your website statistics, conduct user surveys, focus groups, ethnographic research and usability studies: all designed to give you a clearer picture of your audience and how your site is perceived by your current and target audiences. This then allows our team to advise you on exactly how you can improve your online properties to meet the aspirations of your current users and build a bigger, and more profitable, online audience.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

Congratulations Gloria!

The miggle team were chuffed to hear that one of our web development clients, Gloria Francis, has been nominated for the Woman in the Community prize at the WOW (Women On their Way) Awards, in recognition for her work in setting up innovative online business, Stars Sitting Services.

Gloria’s website helps parents of children with disabilities find specialist babysitting care. As part of a site revamp, our miggleweb team created a bespoke sitter booking tool so that parents can check the availability of each professional sitter at a glance.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.